(AP) JACKSON, Miss. – A Mississippi judge known for successfully prosecuting a white supremacist decades after a civil rights-era killing will plead guilty to lying to an FBI agent investigating judicial corruption, the judge's attorney said Tuesday.
Thomas Durkin said Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter will enter the plea in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen. Trial was set for Aug. 17 in Oxford, with DeLaughter facing charges of conspiracy, obstruction and three counts of mail fraud.
DeLaughter has had a storied career, beginning in the 1990s when he was a prosecutor who helped put white supremacist Byron de la Beckwith behind bars for the 30-year-old murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. He was portrayed by Alec Baldwin in the 1996 movie "Ghosts of Mississippi," which was based on Beckwith's prosecution. DeLaughter also wrote a book about the trial.
Prosecutors have said DeLaughter's ambition to become a federal judge ultimately led him to break the law. He was accused of giving an unfair advantage to Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, a chief architect of the multibillion-dollar tobacco settlements of the 1990s, in a dispute over millions of dollars in fees from asbestos lawsuits.
Authorities have said Scruggs, who is now in prison, and others promised DeLaughter they could help him be considered for an open seat on the federal bench with help from Scruggs' brother-in-law, then-U.S. Sen. Trent Lott. Lott is not accused of wrongdoing.
DeLaughter was suspended from the bench pending outcome of the case.
His attorneys have said the judge did not know that Scruggs and others paid former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters $1 million to work behind the scenes in trying to influence him. DeLaughter was once an assistant district attorney under Peters.
Peters was not charged in the case, but has given up his law license and investigators seized $425,000 from him, which is all they say is left of the $1 million from Scruggs after taxes and stock market losses.
The obstruction charge alleges DeLaughter tried to impede the FBI agent while being interviewed about Scruggs. Durkin wouldn't comment on whether DeLaughter would plead to the other charges.
DeLaughter had said his rulings followed the law. Prosecutors, however, said Scruggs' not only wanted favorable rulings he wanted rulings that would withstand the scrutiny of appellate courts.
Scruggs was already serving a five-year sentence for conspiring to bribe a different judge when he pleaded guilty in February to mail fraud in the Delaughter case. He had two years added to his sentence after striking a deal with prosecutors.
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